April 4-6, 2024 • Hyatt Regency • Lexington, KY
Innovations in Health Communication
Innovations in Health Communication
Abstract: Nationwide Newspaper Coverage of Opioid Use: Community Structure Theory, Partisanship, Age, and Vulnerability
A community structure analysis (Pollock, 2007, 2013, 2015) compared city characteristics and nationwide newspaper coverage of opioid use in newspapers in 28 major U.S. cities, sampling all relevant 150+ word articles, from 10/26/2017-10/26/23. A total of 441 articles were coded for editorial “prominence” (placement, headline size, article length, presence of graphics) and content “direction” (government responsibility, societal responsibility, or balanced/neutral: coverage) and then combined into each newspaper’s composite “Media Vector” (range = + 0.8251 to -0.1518 or 0.9769). Twenty-four of the 28 newspapers (86%) yielded media coverage emphasizing government responsibility for opioid use.
Overall, political partisanship, age, and vulnerability were connected with variations of coverage of opioid use. Regarding partisanship, cities with higher percentages voting Democratic in the last presidential election were linked with media emphasis on less government responsibility for opioid use (r = -0.415, p = 0.014), while higher percentages voting Republican were linked with media emphasis on more government responsibility for opioid use ( r =.374, p = 0.025).
In addition, adults ages 25-44 were associated with coverage emphasizing government responsibility (r = 0.340) (p = 0.038). A single measure of “vulnerability”, percentage of violent crime in a city, was connected with media emphasis on less government responsibility for opioid use (r = -.352) (p = 0.039). Regression analysis revealed that ages 25-44 (15.7% of the variance) and percent voting Republican (3.1%) collectively totaled 18.8% of the variance associated with media coverage supporting government responsibility for opioid use. By contrast, violent crime (8.3% of the variance) was associated with media coverage emphasizing less government responsibility for opioid use.
In previous scholarship, belief systems, vulnerability, and women empowerment were the most powerful drivers of newspaper coverage of opioid use (Cruz, et al., 2018, p. 39). Specifically, higher percentages of Evangelicals in a city were linked to higher government responsibility for opioid abuse (Cruz et al., 2018). Consistently, the current paper found a significant correlation between percent Evangelicals and percent voting Republican (r=0.331, p=0.017). Therefore, the current study is consistent with previous community structure scholarship.
Media coverage emphasizing more government responsibility for opioid use confirms it as a national issue linked with primarily political partisanship and age. Methodologically, combining measures of both “prominence” and “direction,” highly sensitive Media Vectors highlighted the capacity of media to reflect community measures of political partisanship, age, and vulnerability. Theoretically, emphasizing the influence of local demographics, community structure theory complements agenda-setting theory at the national level, reconfirming the findings of an original founder of agenda-setting (Funk & McCombs, 2015), that both nationally prominent newspapers (agenda setting) and local community characteristics/concerns (community structure) can affect coverage of critical local issues.
Overall, political partisanship, age, and vulnerability were connected with variations of coverage of opioid use. Regarding partisanship, cities with higher percentages voting Democratic in the last presidential election were linked with media emphasis on less government responsibility for opioid use (r = -0.415, p = 0.014), while higher percentages voting Republican were linked with media emphasis on more government responsibility for opioid use ( r =.374, p = 0.025).
In addition, adults ages 25-44 were associated with coverage emphasizing government responsibility (r = 0.340) (p = 0.038). A single measure of “vulnerability”, percentage of violent crime in a city, was connected with media emphasis on less government responsibility for opioid use (r = -.352) (p = 0.039). Regression analysis revealed that ages 25-44 (15.7% of the variance) and percent voting Republican (3.1%) collectively totaled 18.8% of the variance associated with media coverage supporting government responsibility for opioid use. By contrast, violent crime (8.3% of the variance) was associated with media coverage emphasizing less government responsibility for opioid use.
In previous scholarship, belief systems, vulnerability, and women empowerment were the most powerful drivers of newspaper coverage of opioid use (Cruz, et al., 2018, p. 39). Specifically, higher percentages of Evangelicals in a city were linked to higher government responsibility for opioid abuse (Cruz et al., 2018). Consistently, the current paper found a significant correlation between percent Evangelicals and percent voting Republican (r=0.331, p=0.017). Therefore, the current study is consistent with previous community structure scholarship.
Media coverage emphasizing more government responsibility for opioid use confirms it as a national issue linked with primarily political partisanship and age. Methodologically, combining measures of both “prominence” and “direction,” highly sensitive Media Vectors highlighted the capacity of media to reflect community measures of political partisanship, age, and vulnerability. Theoretically, emphasizing the influence of local demographics, community structure theory complements agenda-setting theory at the national level, reconfirming the findings of an original founder of agenda-setting (Funk & McCombs, 2015), that both nationally prominent newspapers (agenda setting) and local community characteristics/concerns (community structure) can affect coverage of critical local issues.